The silence inside the Bentley was terrifying.

The soundproof glass completely blocked out Liam's roars, Meg's screams, and the murmurs of onlookers from the café. Emma sat on the expensive leather seat, her entire body shaking uncontrollably.


She had just abandoned Liam. She watched him be humiliated by a monster, and then he followed that monster away like a coward.

Elias sat beside her, but there was a galaxy of distance between them. He didn't look at her, just calmly gazed ahead, as if he hadn't just crushed someone in public, but had merely attended a boring opera.

"You... you almost killed him," Emma's voice was dry, with a tremor she despised herself.


"I did not," Elias's voice was flat and emotionless. "If I had wanted to, he would already be a cold corpse by now."

"He's just an ordinary person!"


"That's exactly why he should learn not to touch things that don't belong to him." Elias finally turned his head, his golden eyes shifting under the city lights, finally locking onto her. "And you, Emma, from the moment you sold your first drop of blood, you were no longer 'ordinary'."

Emma had no strength to argue back.

The vehicle glided smoothly and stopped in front of her dilapidated apartment building.

Emma sat frozen in place. Where else could she go?

"Get out," Elias commanded.

She took a deep breath, summoning her last bit of courage. She had to figure out this monster's intentions. "What do you really want?"

Her voice trembled, but she forced herself to meet his icy gaze. "Money? I don't have any. Is it my blood?"

She tried to make it sound like a deal, a negotiation where she still had some leverage. "You... you like my blood, don't you? We can talk. I can... I can supply you regularly. As long as you... don't drain me dry."

She thought this was already the worst condition—becoming a private "blood bag."

Elias didn't speak. He just looked at her, with that kind of gaze... not looking at a "supplier," but looking at a "possession."

He leaned closer, that cold, snow-like aura enveloping her again. He didn't touch her, but his face was only inches from hers.

"What I want," he whispered, his voice seeming to freeze her soul, "is not 'regular supply'."

"What I want is everything."

Emma's blood froze instantly. "Everything? What... what do you mean?"

"Your person, your time, your obedience." Elias straightened up, his lips curling into that cold arc, "Your everything."

"You're insane!" she cried out, "I'm only selling blood, not my body! I absolutely refuse!"

"You will." Elias's voice was flat and unwavering, as if stating an established fact, "You'll come begging to me soon."

His words were like a curse.

Emma practically fled from the car. She didn't look back, rushing into the apartment building. The Bentley silently glided into the night behind her.

…………

She hid in her apartment for two days.

Liam's calls and messages were about to explode. From initial anger to confusion, and finally heartbroken pleading.

Emma didn't dare to reply to any of them. How could she? She was trapped between two worlds—one she could no longer return to, and one she was too afraid to step into.

On the third night, just as she was curled up on the sofa considering whether to cancel her phone number, the phone rang.

But the caller ID wasn't Liam.

It was Dr. Alistair, Leo's attending physician at St. Jude Hospital.

Emma's heart instantly jumped to her throat.

"Emma?" The doctor's voice was full of exhaustion and apology.

"Doctor? What is it? Is it Leo?"

There was a heavy silence on the other end of the line.

"Emma, I'm very sorry," the doctor began, "Leo... he's experiencing severe rejection. Our current treatment plan... has failed."

The phone nearly slipped from Emma's hand. "F-failed? What do you mean? No! You said that the medicine..."

"We've done everything we could. His body is rejecting it. His condition is very critical now. We... we may only have a few days left."

"No!" Emma stood up, her voice becoming shrill with panic, "There must be another way! There must be!"

"...There is." The doctor hesitated for a moment, "There is one. But Emma, it's almost impossible."

"Tell me!"

"Switzerland, Lausanne. There's a private research institute. They're conducting a radical gene therapy, specifically for rare immune collapse cases like Leo's. It's his only chance."

"Then send him there! Immediately!"

"Emma..." The doctor's voice was filled with helplessness, "This institute is private. They don't accept insurance. Just the deposit for assessment and admission costs two hundred and fifty thousand dollars."

Two hundred and fifty thousand.

This number was like a bullet, shattering Emma's last line of defense.

She hung up the phone.

She slid to the floor, letting out a bestial, desperate whimper. She had no money left. The twenty thousand dollars she got from selling her blood was long gone. She had nothing left. Leo was going to die.

She had failed.

She didn't know how long she had been sitting on the cold floor. Despair, like freezing seawater, flooded her nose and mouth.

Then, she remembered those words.

"You'll come begging to me soon."

Elias Thorne.

He knew she would reach this point. He had been waiting all along.

Emma trembled as she picked up her phone. She didn't have Elias's number. Where could she find him? At that coffee shop? At her school?

She didn't need to.

When she opened her phone, she found a new message. From an "Unknown Number."

The message had been received five minutes ago—right at the moment her call with the doctor ended.

[ St. Jude Hospital. Top floor. VIP waiting room.]

He knew. He knew everything.

…………

The VIP area on the hospital's top floor was unnervingly quiet, covered with expensive carpets and soft lighting.

Emma rushed out of the elevator, her hair disheveled, eyes swollen and red, looking completely out of place in the luxury surrounding her.

Elias Thorne stood outside the ICU window, his back to her, gazing at the frail child inside who was connected to numerous tubes.

"He is very weak," Elias spoke without turning around. His voice sounded unnaturally cold in the corridor.

"Stay away from him!" Emma rushed over, her voice hoarse. "Did you do this? To make me submit?"

"I did not," Elias finally turned to face her, his golden eyes showing not a trace of sympathy, only pure scrutiny. "This is the fragility of mortals. You are like glass, breaking at the slightest touch."

Emma's tears flowed uncontrollably. She hated him. She hated that superior look in his eyes, as if he were watching ants. But she had no choice.

"Switzerland..." she said trembling, "is there really still hope?"

"Lausanne Genetic Institute." Elias stated calmly, "I own fifty-one percent of the board shares. Their best team, a Gulfstream G650 medical jet, can be ready on the tarmac within an hour."

Emma closed her eyes. This was absolute power.

"What do you want?" She opened her eyes, all pride and resistance turning to ashes in the face of her brother's life.

Elias walked closer to her, until she could once again smell that scent of ice and snow.

"I thought I had made myself clear."

He took out a document and a pure black fountain pen from his coat pocket. This wasn't hospital paperwork, this was... a contract.

"You'll cover all of Leo's expenses. Until he recovers." Emma's voice was hollow.

"Correct."

"In exchange..."

"In exchange," Elias continued, "you will abandon your current life. You will move into my residence. You cannot leave without my permission. You will become my exclusive property."

He paused, his gaze falling on her neck.

"All your blood, all your obedience, belongs to me."

The terms of the contract were clear and cruel.

"And," he added, as if this was the most trivial condition, "that mortal called Liam. You will immediately and completely sever all connections with him. You cannot see him, cannot speak to him. In your new life, he doesn't exist."

This was the price. Trading her freedom and her past for her brother Leo's future.

Elias handed her the pen.

"Sign it, Emma. Or turn around and walk away, watch your brother die before sunrise tomorrow."

Emma's hand trembled so much she could barely hold the pen. She looked at Leo through the glass window, then at the man before her offering this devil's contract.

This wasn't a choice.

This was a sentence.

She took the pen and signed her name on the last page of the contract.